MGM Memo Surveys 'Valkyrie' Online Buzz

It never fails to amaze me how studios convince themselves that up is down, and left is right. Here’s an internal MGM memo giddy over the possibility that the new trailer for Tom Cruise’s December 26th Nazi pic will translate into big biz:

Attached is an updated report on online buzz around the new Valkyrie assets:

OVERVIEW

Favorable Tone Dominates Trailer Buzz – Currently, reactions to the Valkyrie trailer are significantly favorable (approximately 80%) within Entertainment, Fan-Boy, Video Sharing, Social Networks, Social Bookmarks, and Fan communities. Fans deem the trailer “fantastic,” often praising the “stylistic” way that the footage was cut and asserting that it is “way better” than the initial teaser. Enthusiasts also note that the “intriguing” trailer has furthered their anticipation for the film’s release and anticipate that it will feature many great performances from the ensemble cast. Additionally, many viewers share avid excitement to see Bryan Singer’s “distinctive work” in the film and, while others admitted that they “aren’t fans” of Tom Cruise, they stated that the trailer has “sold” them on seeing Valkyrie in December. Neutral reactions (15%) arise from viewers sharing mixed reactions to the trailer, often asserting that while the film has the potential to be “awesome” they still have their doubts based on the initial critical buzz. The limited amount of unfavorable discussion (5%) stems from critics expressing general disinterest in the film, contending that the trailer makes Valkyrie look like “another Hollywood action movie.”

Additional Assets Also Garner Rave Reviews – In addition to the trailer, the Valkyrie one-sheet, featurette, and stills have been generating largely positive user reactions. The poster comprises the majority of discussion, as fans laud the “stylized design” and hope that it represents the “gritty” feel of the film. “I definitely want one of these up on my walls right away.” The stills garnered high profile placement with features including the LA Times – The Envelope and Fan-Boy sites such as Joblo. The Official Website has also had several mentions about its “cool new features.”

Lack of German Accents Still an Issue – While the majority of buzz about the lack of German accents is neutral, the topic is fueling discussion among online audiences. Critics contend that their absence creates a “lack of cohesiveness” while supporters believe that their inclusion would make the film appear “cheesy.” There were also numerous users sharing mixed opinions on the topic, stating that while the lack of accents is “distracting” and anticipate it will “take some getting used to,” the trailer “looks amazing” and they intend on seeing the film upon its release.

66 Comments

K. Reed • on Sep 30, 2008 2:47 am

Why may I ask is everyone is such a hurry to make Valkyrie fail? If the movie is garnering good reviews,why the constant bad-mouthing in the press.Just look at Roger Friedman articles trying to talk down this movie.He says in his latest article that the movie is “well made and an absorbing thriller but it’s not an Oscar movie.” He states that his sources who saw the movie didn’t find the lack of accents distracting either. So if Valkyrie is a good,well-made movie, why is they’re such an effort by the media and by Hollywood to shut it down.
I mean you yourself Nikki just posted postive reaction to the new Valkyrie trailer, yet you report those positive as if they’re negatives.If anyone is reporting what’s up is down and what’s down is up, it’s you.

Warner Borg • on Sep 30, 2008 3:01 am

I can see this film getting an audience and some critical love but nowhere near what MGM/UA will need either financially or in terms of industry kudos.

I just hope that we aren’t looking at this film as something that (once again) could make or break MGM/UA if it deosn’t hit.

Especially in this age of financial melt downs and implosions.

Thierry Attard • on Sep 30, 2008 3:11 am

Frankly, I don’t understand why there would be an “issue” about the lack of German accents.

This is Byzantine, why should a movie endorse the local accent of the story location to be more authentic? This is Walkyrie, not an average episode of The Girl from UNCLE.

In this case, should there be a preoccupation about accent that would be about the Brit one… I had to watch the trailer even if I had not the slightest interest about this film, let’s call it the “Nikki effect”.

I found very strange the idea to make a movie about this (especially when you know the end in advance) but now, after watching the trailer, I think I will have a look at Walkyrie.

And I’m not a fan of Mr Cruise at all (really), but I try to keep an open mind. When I told around me that I had a good feeling about the third Mission: Impossible they thought I went nuts. Because I regularly compare M:I 2 to a ZAZ movie without Nielsen. M:I 3 is one of the most brilliant action thriller ever.

Yes Mr Cruise jumps on sofas but when I think about the state of the Hollywood industry he’s not on the top of the list of what should be rectified. If Walkyrie bombs (hum, sorry about this involuntary joke) he’ll do something huge later.

Pardon me, I’m French. We don’t even know who Tyler Perry is…

Mark Ywain • on Sep 30, 2008 4:42 am

Early word from test screenings on the intraweb is all quite positive from what I’ve read so far.

Even Friedman, who hates Valkyrie and Tom Cruise with a passion (writing about it 7 or so times, all negative) must be kicking himself to hear that his sources actually thought it was decent.

Look if the film is good, then trust me while your watching the movie you won’t even give a damn about the accents.
Of course if the movie is crap you will notice and you will whine.

Accents don’t make a movie and there are plenty of other films that don’t use accents/Enemy at the Gates, ‘Good’ (2008) with Viggo Mortensen etc.

JD • on Sep 30, 2008 5:42 am

Consider the studio’s “sources” and know that this movie will bomb because middle America just don’t like Tom Cruise. A simple poll will tell you that. The film is a good story but Mr. Cruise’s presence tarnishes any decent profitability. So this will be a box office bomb but will it earn Oscar gold? Clooney has been in dozens of bombs and yet he still gets nominated so we’ll have to see how that plays out.

Key • on Sep 30, 2008 6:44 am

Technically the only buzz that the movie needs is to be discussed. Which it has, a lot. People are hovering on the edge of their seats to see if this is going to be the colossal flop that they think it is.

At this rate it might actually scrape even regardless of whether it’s good or not simply because someone will remember hearing something about it online – but not specifically what. They’ll head to the theaters and see the thing out of curiosity as much as anything else.

Brian M • on Sep 30, 2008 7:21 am

Where do you get that they are saying up is down and left is right? Everything in that memo sounded pretty darn accurate to me!

Dan Zee • on Sep 30, 2008 7:46 am

Sounds like Sandro has a great job just surfing the fanboy sites and writing up what people are saying online. Where can I get a job like that?

If I were MGM, though, I would want to know what the negatives of the marketing campaign were and focus on those to overcome them.

As for some of the comments above, moviegoers have been conditioned to hearing German accents in WWII movies, much like people are conditioned to hearing British accents in a Roman Empire movie and Russian accents in a spy movie. This is what people expect after 80 years of “talkies.” It helps to set a mood and create a time and a place within a movie. Enemy at the Gates did get criticized for its lack of accents and not a lot of people saw this great little movie.

As for criticism of the film, that’s what critics are paid to do. But you have to agree the picture has some serious problems. For example, if it had only cost $40 million, critics wouldn’t be fixated on it. But the fact that it cost $100+ million and nobody knows who the audience for this movie is, that’s a serious problem. The same picture can be a hit at $40 mil, but a bomb at $100 mil. Plus having United Artists and $500 million in financing disappear while this picture was being made makes it a loser even if it’s a winner.

So those are the issues. In Hollywood, it’s all about making the right picture for the right budget.

Jack Burton • on Sep 30, 2008 8:04 am

And you don’t think there are reports like this for EVERY movie, good or bad, that comes out? I’m sure if you didn’t have an axe to grind against this one movie, you’d be able to find trailer screening memos on everything from BOLT to ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO.

UGLY PUNK GURL! • on Sep 30, 2008 8:05 am

Frankly, I don’t understand why there would be an “issue” about the lack of German accents.

This is Byzantine, why should a movie endorse the local accent of the story location to be more authentic? This is Walkyrie, not an average episode of The Girl from UNCLE.

yeah, that’s typical Hollywood for you. American accents in movies about French, German, Italian, whatever people, haev always been common in the old days. So why should it be any different today? Mmmm?

moviegirl • on Sep 30, 2008 8:09 am

Nikki, do you have any idea the shitstorm of insider leaking accusations you are going to start with this post? I can imagine the execs and filmmakers over at MGM going apeshit right now strategizing how to deal with this email getting to you. Unless, that is, you got it directly from the horse’s mouth. Good job! I love transparency.

Nanea • on Sep 30, 2008 8:20 am

I am German, I’ve seen the trailer, I couldn’t care less for Cruise, nor for the lack of accents.

What bothers me is that they don’t get the facts right. It’s not that this is something based on a best-selling fiction book where the original story can be tweaked for visual or emotional effects. This is history, something that actually really happened, something that didn’t need the Hollywood treatment in order to be understood.

From the look of the trailer, this attempt at retelling the story of von Stauffenberg in a respectful and historically accurate way will fail majorly.

Of course Cruise’s antics won’t help selling this project here in Europe.

joe granville • on Sep 30, 2008 9:21 am

It absolutely does matter about the accents. I can’t believe they left them out. It isn’t distracting to most because Americans always want to see things their way instead of the way it should be or really is/was. American’s go to France and make no attempt to speak the language. “Garcon…do you have some ketchup for my fries?” I always find it distracting for the simple reason that the actors are paid to do their work. When I go to see a film with a particular actor or actors, I am paying to see their work. I want to see what the finished product of their research, and artistic choices looks like. If I get paid 20 million to star in Valkyrie, you bet your ass I’m going to work out my German accent. I’M GETTING PAID to do the most work I possibly can to interpret the story as realistically as possible. To just leave it out is LAZY LAZY LAZY and arrrogant. If Cate Blanchett and Meryl Streep can do it…why can’t anyone else who calls themselves an actor? For the record, I am an American born and raised. And, unlike many, I remain a fan of Tom Cruise. He hasn’t made the best choices in the past few years, but I hold out hope he will do more work such as he has done in Magnolia, Vanilla Sky, Rain Man, etc…Talk to me Goose.

Axel K. • on Sep 30, 2008 9:31 am

Well, as far a we know, good Internet buzz doesn´t mean a shit in box office terms… Have you forgotten “Snakes on a Plane”?

Tennyson E. Stead • on Sep 30, 2008 9:41 am

This kind of post really illustrates the innocent ways a Byzantine studio overhead can muddy and convolute the production and distribution process. As someone who works in independent film, little tidbits like this offer me some very useful perspective. If you have the time Nikki, I’d love to see more of them.

All that noise from the kitchen makes sense when you know how many cooks are huddled around the stove. Thanks, Nikki!

J.R. • on Sep 30, 2008 9:46 am

Just saw the trailer before eagle Eye… thought it looked pretty good.

Nanea: Do people go to the movies to understand a moment in history, or to be told a story? If you want to learn about history, go to school. If you want to watch a movie, go to the theaters. They’re exclusive from one another.

Andrew • on Sep 30, 2008 10:07 am

How do you know they don’t get the facts right, Nanea? Have you actually seen the film? Its incredible to me how many people have made snap judgments and pre-determinations on this film — even some “respectable” critics and journalists — without having seen it. From what I know (and from having read the script), the film should be pretty damn accurate, with very few liberties taken. Singer’s a stickler for details like that and this story is way too sensitive for them to “Hollywoodize” it. Why can’t people just chill out and make their decisions on whether to like the movie or not WHEN IT COMES OUT and they SEE IT… and maybe… just maybe… they LIKE IT.

Leeroy Jenkins • on Sep 30, 2008 10:26 am

I am far more distracted by BAD attempts at accents than I am at a complete lack of them. I am actually very interested in seeing Valkyrie, and I haven’t paid cash to see a Cruise film since M.I. If I had to sit through Valkyrie listening to Cruise butcher a German accent, I wouldn’t be able to stand it. As it is, with all actors foregoing that ill fated attempt, I imagine the only thing distracting me will be whether or not the film is any good.

ReelBusy • on Sep 30, 2008 10:30 am

Trailer looks good to me.
I agree with J.R.

WGA Writer • on Sep 30, 2008 10:43 am

Read the script a while back. Liked it a lot, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be a good movie. Hope I’m wrong.

RG • on Sep 30, 2008 10:44 am

Nothing against Tom Cruise at all. I wish his next film would be his biggest ever but I have virtually zero interest in Valkyrie. Go to Wikipedia and read up on the real events behind Valkyrie. Hitler lives, they failed. Cue the gallows.

darkwing • on Sep 30, 2008 10:53 am

Thanks K Reed, for your post. I think your dead on. I’m sorry Nikki but the new trailer is kinda awesome. The buzz on it is real. Yes, that first teaser put me off as well, but the script was great, and the reaction from people that have actually screened the film is very positive. So Nikki, why are you reporting that this internal memo is promoting BS?

Pg-13???? • on Sep 30, 2008 11:18 am

So it’s been edited to a PG-13, apparently down from an R.

A PG-13 rated war movie? Could it be that the studio simply was not confident in the product and had to water it down to a teenage audience?

Does anyone know?

Loobyloo • on Sep 30, 2008 11:28 am

(and from having read the script), the film should be pretty damn accurate, with very few liberties taken.

Andrew: where did you read the script? Wouldn’t mind reading it myself.

Will • on Sep 30, 2008 12:13 pm

I don’t get the whole negative view of not using accents. I understand that it may set the mood and I agree that maybe an alteration in speech in order to put us in the time and place might be helpful but straight up German accents would just sound silly.

In the reality of the story, they are not speaking English, they’re speaking German so why should they have accents that are based on how Germans speak English? Isn’t that an antiquated idea straight out of the failed civilization of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin? I never get why there are ever these kinds of accents in Hollywood movies. There are always much better ways to suggest a location than doing a comic over the top accent. It reminds me of an article I read about someone praising a Jordanian movie but taking issue with the score not sounding “authentic” enough. Something which I find both condescending and slightly offensive.

Then again, we will soon be seeing the movie version of Nine that will probably mirror the last Broadway revival and do it all in Italian accents. So those of you who need that Rob Marshal’s got you covered :-)